REGULARLY SCHEDULED WEEKLY RELEASES:

Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update (9/17/2012)
Presents average weekly retail on-highway diesel fuel prices for the U.S., 8 regions, and the State of California and average weekly retail gasoline prices at the national and regional levels, and for selected cities and States.

OTHER RELEASES THIS WEEK:

Form EIA-861 Annual Data File for 2011 (09/20/2012)
Contains spreadsheets with retail and wholesale electricity sales and revenue data from the 2011 Form EIA-861. The files contain electricity sales, revenue and price data, as well as Demand Side Management (DSM), Green Pricing, Net Metering, Dispersed and Distributed generation data. The data covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.

Wholesale Market Data (09/20/2012)
Spreadsheets contain peak prices, volumes, and the number of transactions at ten electricity trading hubs covering most regions of the United States. Data from ICE (IntercontinentalExchange) through September 14, 2012.

Trading Point: Central Appalachian (CAPP) coal spot prices affect markets for coal and electric power (09/20/2012)
Central Appalachian (CAPP) coal spot prices are the most widely referenced prices for eastern coal in the United States. Coal producers, electric utilities, merchant generators, non-utility industrial coal users, and other energy marketers use CAPP spot prices as a benchmark in both physical and financial transactions for short-term and long-term contracts. Changes in CAPP spot prices can affect fuel procurement and power dispatch decisions.

Trading Point: Central Appalachian (CAPP) is the nation's benchmark price for eastern coal (09/19/2012)
Central Appalachian (CAPP) coal spot prices are the most widely referenced prices for eastern coal in the United States. Coal producers, electric utilities, merchant generators, non-utility industrial coal users, and other energy marketers use CAPP spot prices as a benchmark in both physical and financial transactions for short-term and long-term contracts.

Kazakhstan Country Analysis Brief (09/18/2012)
Kazakhstan is a major oil producer and continued development of its giant oilfields Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan will be key to its future oil production growth. However, the country is land-locked and lies a great distance from international oil markets, and development of additional export capacity will be necessary for production growth.

Russia Country Analysis Brief (09/18/2012)
Russia ranks among top two of the world’s natural gas and oil producer, and it is a major exporter of both. Russia’s economy largely depends on energy exports. The energy sector is Russia is dominated by domestic firms, and although some efforts were made to attract investment, foreign companies continue to experience difficulties operating in Russia.

More recycling raises average energy content of waste used to generate electricity (09/18/2012)
Most municipal solid waste (MSW) used to generate electricity contains both biogenic and non-biogenic components. As consumers recycle or recover more biogenic waste (such as food waste and yard clippings) and discard more non-biogenic waste (such as plastics and metals), the biogenic portion of municipal solid waste decreases. Since non-biogenic material has a higher heat content, the average heat content of MSW as a whole is increasing, making it a more efficient fuel for producing electricity.

Canada Country Analysis Brief (09/18/2012)
Canada is the largest foreign supplier of energy to the United States and is an especially significant producer of conventional and unconventional oil, natural gas, and hydroelectricity. Canada's unconventional oil sands are a significant contributor to the recent and expected growth in the world's liquid fuel supply and comprise the vast majority of the country's proven oil reserves, which rank third globally.

Municipal solid waste plants convert garbage to electricity (09/17/2012)
Waste-to-energy plants burn municipal solid waste (MSW) to generate electricity or heat. At the plant, MSW is unloaded from collection trucks and shredded or processed to ease handling. The waste is fed into a combustion chamber to be burned. The heat released from burning the MSW is used to produce steam, which turns a turbine to generate electricity.

Projected Alaska North Slope oil production at risk beyond 2025 if oil prices drop sharply (09/14/2012)
Oil production on Alaska's North Slope, which has been declining since 1988, is transported to market through the TransAlaska Pipeline System (TAPS). Because TAPS needs to maintain throughput above a minimum threshold level to remain operational, its projected lifetime depends on continued investment in North Slope oil production that itself depends on future oil prices. In the Annual Energy Outlook 2012 low oil price case, North Slope production would cease and TAPS would be decommissioned, which could occur as early as 2026.